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The injury incidence among both youth and adult elite athletics athletes is high. A training load index combing hours and intensity and a history of severe injury the previous year were predictors for injury. Further studies on measures to quantify training content and protocols for safe return to athletics are warranted.

To investigate whether the degree of obesity predicts the efficacy of long-term behavioral treatment and to explore any interaction with age. Design: A 3-year longitudinal observational study. Obese children were divided into 3 age groups (6-9, 10-13, and 14-16 years) and also into 2 groups (moderately obese, with a body mass index [BMI]-standard deviation [SD] score [or z score] of 1.6 to Ͻ3.5, and severely obese, with a BMI-SD score of Ն3.5).

Objective: To assess the efficacy of a school-based intervention programme to reduce the prevalence of overweight in 6 to 10-year-old children. Design: Cluster-randomized, controlled study. Subjects: A total of 3135 boys and girls in grades 1-4 were included in the study. Methods: Ten schools were selected in Stockholm county area and randomized to intervention (n ¼ 5) and control (n ¼ 5) schools. Low-fat dairy products and whole-grain bread were promoted and all sweets and sweetened drinks were eliminated in intervention schools. Physical activity (PA) was aimed to increase by 30 min day À1 during school time and sedentary behaviour restricted during after school care time. PA was measured by accelerometry. Eating habits at home were assessed by parental report. Eating disorders were evaluated by self-report. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity decreased by 3.2% (from 20.3 to 17.1) in intervention schools compared with an increase of 2.8% (from 16.1 to 18.9) in control schools (Po0.05). The results showed no difference between intervention and controls, after cluster adjustment, in the longitudinal analysis of BMIsds changes. However, a larger proportion of the children who were initially overweight reached normal weight in the intervention group (14%) compared with the control group (7.5%), P ¼ 0.017. PA did not differ between intervention and control schools after cluster adjustment. Eating habits at home were found to be healthier among families with children in intervention schools at the end of the intervention. There was no difference between children in intervention and control schools in self-reported eating disorders. Conclusions: A school-based intervention can reduce the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 6 to 10-year-old children and may affect eating habits at home. The effect of the intervention was possibly due to its effect on healthy eating habits at school and at home rather than on increased levels of PA.

Background: Rating scales like the visual analogue scale, VAS, and the verbal rating scale, VRS, are often used for pain assessments both in clinical work and in research, despite the lack of a gold standard. Interchangeability of recorded pain intensity captured in the two scales has been discussed earlier, but not in conjunction with taking the influence of pain etiology into consideration.

Studies have shown that reduced neuromuscular control or strength increases the risk of acute injuries. It is hypothesized that a non-functional movement pattern can predispose for injuries. In the present paper a detailed description of a test battery consisting of nine different tests to screen athletic movement pattern is provided. The aim was to evaluate the inter- and intra-rater reliability of the test battery on a group of male elite soccer players. Twenty-six healthy elite soccer players (17-28 years) were screened. Eighteen participated at a second occasion 7 days later. No significant difference (P=0.31) was found between test occasion 1 (LS means 18.3, 95% confidence interval 14.9-21.7) and test occasion 2 (18.0, 14.4-21.7) in the mean total score of the test battery. No significant difference in the inter-rater reliability was found between the eight physiotherapists at the two test occasions. The intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.80 and 0.81, respectively. The test battery showed good inter- and intra-rater reliability. The screening battery is easy to use for familiarized professionals and requires minimal equipment. However, further studies are needed to confirm the validity of the test battery in injury prevention, rehabilitation and performance enhancement.

The injury prevalence is high among Swedish elite track and field athletes. Most of the injuries affect the lower extremities and are associated with a gradual onset. Although it is associated with a potential recall bias, the 1-year retrospective prevalence measure captured more sudden onset injuries than the point prevalence measure. Future prospective studies in track and field are needed to identify groups of athletes at increased risk.

Objective:Impaired fasting glucose (IFG), a pre-stage to type 2 diabetes in adults, is also present in obese children. A large variation of the occurrence has been recorded, but the true prevalence is unknown due to lack of larger representative cohort studies. This study was implemented to investigate the prevalence of IFG in two nationwide cohorts of obese children and to find factors that affect the risk of IFG.Design:A cross-sectional study based on data collected from two nationwide registers of obese children in Germany and Sweden, respectively.Subjects:Subjects included were 2–18 years old. 32 907 subjects with fasting glucose were eligible in Germany and 2726 in Sweden. Two cutoff limits for IFG were used: 5.6–6.9 mmol l−1 according to the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and 6.1–6.9 mmol l−1according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Variables collected were gender, age and degree of obesity. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios.Results:The total prevalence of IFG among obese children in the German cohort according to the ADA was 5.7% and according to the WHO it was 1.1%. In Sweden, the corresponding prevalence was 17.1% and 3.9%, respectively. IFG risk was correlated with increasing age, male sex and degree of obesity.Conclusions:IFG is highly prevalent among obese children. Age and degree of obesity are positively correlated with the risk of having IFG. There are large regional differences. After adjustments, obese children in Sweden, due to unknown reasons, have a 3.4- to 3.7-fold higher risk of having IFG than obese children in Germany.